Magnetism is a fascinating class of physical phenomena and in the last few years we have often seen design projects inspired by magnetic fields.
Jólan van der Wiel is among the artists and designers who developed consistent and intriguing works using magnetism.
As you may remember from previous posts, a few years ago van der Wiel tried to find new shapes for conventional objects in innovative plastic materials using magnetism and came up with a series of stools.
Besides, he collaborated with Iris van Herpen on her "Wilderness Embodied" and "Magnetic Motion" collections that included designs dresses and shoes that had been subjected to magnetic fields and that seemed to have grown spiky or complex alien-like formations.
Jólan van der Wiel's fans will be happy to hear that he is still experimenting with magnetism, and his latest creations will be on display at Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (from 23rd November 2019 to 25th October 2020).
Van der Wiel started experimenting with magnetic ceramics – a material that he calls "dragonstone" – in 2011. He developed the technique further through personal researches and a residency in China, where he explored the limits of magnetism and gravity.
To create his sculptures the artist mixes metal powder and ceramics; the iron particles stiffen when he sets up magnets in the vicinity of the material and this allows him to come up with spiky or unusual configurations (the process is the same the artist and designer employed for his stools, only in the latter he controlled plastic-based materials).
Some of the most original shapes created with this technique definitely look like alien creatures. But there is actually another connection with space: the six-meter-long work that will be featured in the exhibition is the result of an investigation Van der Wiel did about providing gravity in a space colony and it is inspired by the 1976 volume The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. In the book American physicist and space activist Gerard K. O'Neill explored the idea of living communities in space.
Looks like ceramics in van der Wiel's hands may become the stuff of sci-fi dreams and, hopefully, he will keep on experimenting with this technique and develop also something wearable, such as a line of magnetic ceramic jewellery.
